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50 free Saxophone trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This saxophone trivia quiz covers the brass instrument that is officially a woodwind, from Adolphe Sax's Paris workshop to the bandstands of jazz, rock and The Simpsons. The easy questions are the ones any music fan can answer: who invented it, what it is made of, what makes it sound, and which member of the family Lisa Simpson plays. From there the set moves through the instrument itself: the 1846 patent and its fourteen sizes, why the E-flat and B-flat series won out, the leather pads and octave key, the reed cane, the mouthpiece materials, the low B-flat extension and the high F-sharp key. The harder end is for players and jazz heads: the Belgian town where Sax was born, his lip cancer and death in poverty, the ophicleide and bass clarinet that shaped his design, Coleman Hawkins making the tenor a jazz voice, Charlie Parker's plastic Grafton at Massey Hall, Coltrane's soprano on My Favorite Things, Sonny Rollins practising on the Williamsburg Bridge, the Conn-O-Sax and King Saxello, the tubax and soprillo, the man who played the Baker Street riff, Kenny G's 45-minute Guinness note and the president who played tenor on The Arsenio Hall Show. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the saxophone, its inventor and its most famous players and songs before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Jazz, Musical Instruments and Music History quizzes next.
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Q 01Who invented the saxophone in the early 1840s?
Adolphe Sax
He was a Belgian instrument maker, flautist and clarinetist working in Paris.
Q 02Although usually made of brass, the saxophone belongs to which family of instruments?
Woodwind
Its sound comes from a vibrating single reed, like a clarinet.
Q 03In what year was the saxophone patented?
1846
The 15-year patent covered 14 versions of the design, from the smallest to the largest.
Q 04The saxophone's inventor was born in which town in what is now Belgium?
Dinant
He moved to Paris in 1842 to set up his instrument business.
Q 05Sax's patent covered instruments in two series of seven. Which two keys became the dominant series?
B-flat and E-flat
The C and F instruments never gained a foothold and were made in tiny numbers.
Q 06Which four saxophones are in widest modern use?
Soprano, alto, tenor, baritone
The sopranino and bass turn up mainly in large saxophone choirs.
Q 07What closes the tone holes of a saxophone when a key is pressed?
Leather pads
The octave key raises the pitch of lower notes by an octave.
Q 08What is the lowest written note on most modern saxophones?
Low B-flat
Nearly all of the largest common size now have an extra key for a low A.
Q 09Which company patented the 1887 bell extension that took the saxophone's range down a semitone?
Buffet Crampon
The upper limit stayed at high F for nearly a century until the high F-sharp key caught on.
Q 10Saxophone music for every size of the instrument is written on which staff?
Treble
Every saxophone shares the same fingerings, so players can switch sizes easily.
Q 11Most saxophone reeds are made from which plant?
Arundo donax cane
Since the mid-20th century some have been made of fibreglass or composites.
Q 12A saxophone overblows at the octave. By what interval does a clarinet rise when overblown?
A twelfth
Sax deliberately designed his instrument to avoid the clarinet's awkward register break.
Q 13Which two instruments had Sax worked on before creating the saxophone, giving him the necessary skills?
Bass clarinet and ophicleide
His redesign of the bass clarinet is still used today.
Q 21Which maker's Balanced Action saxophones of 1936 revolutionised the left-hand key mechanics?
Selmer
Its 1948 Super Action layout became nearly universal decades later.
Q 22Coleman Hawkins made the tenor a jazz solo instrument during his 1923-34 stint with which bandleader?
Fletcher Henderson
His 1939 recording of Body and Soul is a landmark.
Q 23Alto saxophonist Charlie Parker became the icon of which jazz revolution in the 1940s?
Bebop
He was nicknamed Bird or Yardbird.
Q 24What unusual saxophone did Charlie Parker play at the 1953 Massey Hall concert in Toronto?
Q 14Which brass instrument family also carries Sax's name and laid the groundwork for the euphonium?
Saxhorn
Berlioz was so taken with them that he had a piece played entirely on saxhorns in 1844.
Q 15What illness did Sax survive between 1853 and 1858?
Lip cancer
He died in poverty in Paris in 1894 and is buried at Montmartre.
Q 16How did the saxophone's inventor's life end in 1894?
In poverty in Paris, of pneumonia
He was buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre.
Q 17Which French military band was using eight saxophones by 1856?
The Garde Républicaine
It later played at Boston's World's Peace Jubilee in 1872.
Q 18Which American manufacturer began regular saxophone production in the early 1890s after consulting Edward Lefebre?
C. G. Conn
Its offshoot Buescher followed, making saxophones far more available in the US.
Q 19The C melody saxophone was sold in the early 20th century for what reason?
It could read piano music without transposing
Production stopped during the Great Depression.
Q 20Which two men launched the modern era of classical saxophone from the late 1920s?
Marcel Mule and Sigurd Raschèr
Mule established saxophone study at the Paris Conservatoire from the 1940s.
A plastic Grafton
The acrylic Grafton was a 1950s budget model also used by Ornette Coleman.
Q 25Where was Charlie Parker born in 1920?
Kansas City
His mother bought him his first alto around the time she started night shifts at Western Union.
Q 26What is the title of John Coltrane's most acclaimed album, released in 1965?
A Love Supreme
His music grew increasingly spiritual toward the end of his life.
Q 27Coltrane's 1961 album My Favorite Things was his first on which instrument?
Soprano saxophone
He began practising it while still with Miles Davis.
Q 28Which saxophonist practised on the Williamsburg Bridge to avoid disturbing a pregnant neighbour?
Sonny Rollins
His 1956 album Saxophone Colossus is in the National Recording Registry.
Q 29Coleman Hawkins was known by which nicknames?
Hawk and Bean
Before him, tenor solos were described as mooing and rubbery belches.
Q 30Which Duke Ellington Orchestra member brought the lowest-pitched of the four common saxophones to prominence?
Harry Carney
Johnny Hodges was the band's influential alto voice.